How Tombo Learned toTurn Off the TV

He liked cartoons and movies. He liked adventures, and funny shows too. He even liked commercials.

He knew there was such a thing as watching too much TV, but sometimes it actually felt like he was watching too little TV. For instance, there were three shows he liked at 5 o'clock. That meant he was missing two good shows!

His parents told him he was watching too much. They kept bugging him to stop. But they didn't make him stop.

He didn't like being bugged. He even asked his parents: "Why don't you just make me turn it off, like Billy's parents? Or only let me watch two shows a day, like Jenny's parents?

And you know what his parents said? They said, "We want you to decide for yourself to turn it off." But Tombo knew that would never happen. TV was too good to turn off.

One day Tombo came home from school and went straight to the TV room. He couldn't believe his eyes. All the furniture was gone, but the TV was still there.

Tombo asked his mom if this meant he couldn't watch anymore TV. She said no, that his parents had just decided that because he was watching so much TV, he wasn't getting enough exercise. She said, "Our new rule is that when you watch TV, you have to watch standing up. Maybe you could even jog around the room during commercials."

So Tombo watched TV standing up, and during commercials he sometimes did jumping jacks.

Another day Tombo came home and the door to the TV room was closed. Tombo asked his dad if this meant he couldn't watch anymore TV. He said no, but that his parents had decided it cost too much money to run the TV and heat the TV room.

"You can watch all the TV you want," said Tombo's dad, "but keep the door closed so we can keep the rest of the house warm."

This is the first half of the unillustrated version of the Too Much TV book.